Squadron 42

Everything-but-the-kitchen-sink space sim dream Star Citizen has taken another step closer to reality with the launch of a new alpha for backers, including adding NPC enemies to first-person shooter bits for your face-shooting pleasure. It also boosts performance and... lets you use your webcam to motion-capture your own expressions for your character's face? I think my face would start to hurt after an hour of…

The makers of Star Citizen have declared that the lawsuit against them by CryEngine makers Crytek "sacrifices legal sufficiency for loud publicity", and asked the court to dismiss it. Crytek have claimed that Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) broke the contract under which they licensed CryEngine to build their space sim upon. CIG say these claims are tosh, mostly disproved by a simple look at the…

Despite reports of a brewing legal struggle between Star Citizen studio Cloud Imperium Games and one-time engine partners Crytek, the enormously crowdfunded studio have released another big chunk of gameplay footage, this time focused solely on Squadron 42, the story-driven singleplayer campaign mode. It's a broad mix of gameplay styles, showing off everything from dialogue to dogfighting, some zero-G EVA exploration and a chunk of…

It wouldn't be 2012-2018 (and who knows how much longer) without a Star Citizen controversy. Chris Robert's mega-crowdfunded space-everything game has been subject to a great deal of scrutiny about what it's spent its half-decade and its $173 million dollars on, but a brand new curveball is that his studios Cloud Imperium Games and Roberts Space Industries are being sued by Crysis and CryEngine makers…

It wasn’t until developer Cloud Imperium began showing off Star Citizen's alpha 3.0 that I started to get interested in Chris Roberts’ baby. Sure, the ambitious plans have always sounded impressive, but only recently has it started to look like there’s a hint of cohesion, that there’s a game in there I might like to play. In August, Roberts and co showcased all manner of…

Los Angeles was all Star Citizen [official site] a-go-go last weekend, hosting the spaceship game's annual CitizenCon celebration. Cloud Imperium Games took to the stage to update fans on what they've been up to, and show off future work-in-progress versions. Bad news: this does include a delay for the singleplayer companion game Squadron 42, now pushed out of 2016 into... who knows? On the flipside,…

If you're interested in crowdfunded space sandbox Star Citizen [official site], do set aside 45 minutes to settle down with a cup of tea and read Kotaku UK's mega-feature on the game's troubled development. Julian Benson has spent seven months talking with people who've been working on it, from displeased devs who wish to remain anonymous up to the big cheese himself, Chris Roberts. It's…

This Sunday will see crowdfunded space 'em up Star Citizen [official site] split into two games, the MMO-y sandbox Star Citizen and the singleplayer campaign Squadron 42. Sort of. Not really. It's two separate 'packages', at least. As this has evidently surprised some, developers Cloud Imperium Games have explained more about what it is, saying they'd "like to clear up some confusion about exactly what's…

You might hear a lot about Star Citizen [official site], about its grand visions for a sandbox universe and about its $107 million crowdfunded by selling virtual spaceships, but what's the game actually like now? Is it worth paying for? Well, you can read Alec's thoughts or you can now go see for yourself. For another few days, a 'Free Fly' event lets all and…

Hollywood actors including Harry Potter's Gary Oldman, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back's Mark Hamill, Sliders' John Rhys-Davies, Volume's Andy Serkis, Eastenders' Craig Fairbrass, and GILLIAN CHUFFING ANDERSON are lending their voices and faces to Squardron 42, the single-player side of Star Citizen [official site]. Creator Chris Roberts's years in Hollywood may not have produced much of note, but his crowdfunded space 'em up has…

As surely as the Earth keeps on spinning and the sun looms precariously, waiting for the day when our brittle atmosphere crumbles away so it can boil us all into bleeding scabs that scar the planet's skin, Star Citizen keeps on pulling in millions of dollars. It's now jumped all the way past the $31 million mark, which means a) Star Citizen gets an "interstellar…

(To the tune of Carmina Burana): SPAAAAAAAAAAAAACE! SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE! SPPaaAAaaAAAAACE! Earlier today we already revealed and talked about the new excursion into space, Star Citizen, but we wanted to make sure you had seen see spaceships flying and shooting in the single-player game, Squadron 42. It's the same video from earlier, but it's looking so good. It's looking all in-engine game footage, below.…